Twisted sense of order
THE truth is, nature is terribly misbehaved. Look at it, random and rude. Nature doesn’t queue up. It squeezes in, crowds out.
Enter the gardener. Armed with his naive sense of civility, he attempts to create Euclidean order out of the persistent chaos. He is devoted to stakes and cages, clippers and whackers.
Where shall the twain meet?
Rebar.
The word is a contraction for “concrete reinforcement bar,” but the hardware also serves nicely as the basis for garden sculpture, combining architectural order with nature’s whimsy.
The metal rods can be bought at masonry yards, lumberyards and big box hardware stores. They can be scrounged from demolition sites.
What sets rebar apart from materials such as bamboo and redwood are flexibility and durability. You can bend it by hand any old way, and it lasts for years. Plants cling to its ridges. With rebar, you can cheaply and quickly construct a trellis, a tunnel or a tuteur.
Now you may wonder, what is a tuteur? It’s just a hoity-toity name for a tepee, much like “pate” is used to describe mushy meatloaf. Regardless of what you call it, a tuteur can be an invaluable structure in a garden. On a four-legged, 8-foot rebar tuteur you can grow sweet peas, cucumber, pandorea and beans -- all at the same time.
Almost any plant that vines its way into existence can be harbored on rebar. Well, the intrusive kudzu vine might give you pause. But passionflower would work, as would jasmine, gourds or grapes. Even hooligan tomatoes become law-abiders when provided a rebar trainer.
As rugged and coarse as rebar appears, it can be a beautiful sculptural component of your garden. I spark to the look of rust and entropy that comes to rebar soon after it is installed, but others may appreciate a fresher and cleaner presentation.
If your tastes run that direction, then spray your homemade masterpiece with a standard metal paint. Bold colors such as violet or morning-glory blue are worth trying. Go crazy and paint it bubble-gum pink. Put lawn flamingos around its base. Do whatever you want.
The heat of summer has passed, but next year you could run a drip-irrigation line up to the top of the tuteur and attach a low-flow mister to it. There’s nothing quite as magnetic as a summer garden fitted with misters.
Until then, let your creativity run wild. Follow the directions below. After securing the pieces of rebar together with copper wire, twist the ends of the wire into tendrils. Wrap pieces of sand-washed glass into these little coils, or add stones you’ve collected, or cats-eye marbles, or coins from distant lands -- little bits of randomness to a well-structured addition to the garden.
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Building, bending it to your will
Building a tuteur out of rebar is relatively easy, inexpensive and quick. Materials will cost about $20, and construction will require only some basic equipment, elbow grease and imagination.
Materials and tools
Four 10-foot-long pieces of 3/8 -inch rebar. (Anything thicker and you won’t be able to bend it by hand.) These will be your corner stakes.
Two 6-foot-long pieces of 3/8 -inch rebar. These will be the spirals in the center of the tuteur.
Twenty feet of 12- or 14-gauge copper wire (available at hardware stores) cut into eight 1-foot pieces and one 12-foot piece.
Wire cutters
Pliers
Gloves
Stepladder
Step by step
1. Bend the 6-foot pieces of rebar into spiral cones. The process is simple but requires something strong to leverage the rebar against. The hole in your neighbor’s truck bumper will work. (Kidding.) The padlock hasp on a garbage Dumpster is excellent. Storm drainpipes, old trees, Chinese acrobats performing a trick -- I’ve seen them all used to bend rebar. You also can rent a rebar bender.
2. Lay one cone on the lawn, spiral pointing up.
3. Poke the four 10-foot pieces into the lawn around the perimeter of the spiral, at the points of a square. Push the 10-footers into the soil about a foot deep.
4. Lift the spiral to a point between your navel and sternum. Take a 1-foot piece of wire and, with your fingers, twist-tie the spiral to one of the 10-foot uprights. Repeat for the three other uprights.
5. When you like the way the spiral looks, tighten the wires with the pliers.
6. Tie the second spiral in the same manner, above the first spiral. You’ll want the smallest coils of the spiral to face each other.
7. Take the remaining 12 feet of wire, climb the ladder and pull the tuteur’s four uprights together. Wrap the wire neatly around the uprights where they converge at the top.
8. Choose a vine -- sweet pea, jasmine, practically anything. Or plant several types of vines.
9. Pull your creation out of the sod. Slip it into the soil wherever you want in your garden, and plant your vines underneath. Watch them grow, smile and say, “Now that’s what I’m talking about.”
Tony Kienitz is the author of “The Year I Ate My Yard.” He can be reached at home@latimes.com.
